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Kim Beazley joins ANU experts to debate the impact of Trump in Asia

20 February 2018

As Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull prepares to visit Washington, The Australian National University (ANU) will welcome former Australian Ambassador to the US Kim Beazley for the launch of Australian Foreign Affairs magazine's Trump in Asia issue.

Mr Beazley, a former Deputy Prime Minister and Labor Party Leader, will join Dean of the ANU College of Asia and Pacific Affairs Professor Michael Wesley as part of a panel discussion to debate the issues facing Australia as part of a new world disorder.

Professor Wesley is recognised as a leading international relations expert for the Asia-Pacific region and has contributed a 5,000 word essay to Australian Foreign Affairs outlining why President Trump represents a major change to Asia, and how Australia's foreign policy should adjust.

"The advent of Trump calls for a fundamental rethinking of Australia's strategy towards the Asia- Pacific," Professor Wesley said.

"Such a rethink has long been needed, but with Obama and his predecessors, we hid behind a hope that American power and resolve would prevail once again.

"Trump tears away any excuse for wishful thinking. For the past quarter- century, Canberra's policy has been to support American primacy and US efforts to prevent the rise of rivals. Trump's election forces us to confront the failure of that policy and the implausibility of the restoration of America's position of dominance."